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20120305

2012-03-04 While two armed black males waited with rifles to ambush and kill her husband Hennie at the electrified gate of their Raslouw smallholding, wife Lizette Langeveld hid inside a closet with her 10-year-old son -- while she was sending frantic help messages on her facebook page from her laptop.

Her messages saved the lives of her family, writes Beeld journalist Gerhard Pretorius after she posted the message: "Please help now in armed-robbery they wait for Hennie at the gate please don't let him go inside the gate,' was her first message just after 19h30 on Sunday March 4 2012. Her second message provided her husband’s telephone number and asked her friends to phone him urgently to warn him, and that she and her son were hiding inside a closet.

The mom was attacked by the gang just as her little son was bringing kittens into their home. The black males, she described as a 'small one and a big one', were both armed with rifles and the smaller man wore a balaclava. Mrs Langeveld was seated on her bed with her laptop computer when the men walked in. They tied her and her son up with plastic cables they'd brought along, and threw the Afrikaner mom and her son on the bed on their stomachs.

“Lord please help us,’ her son prayed loudly…

"They slapped me around, constantly asking me: 'where is your jewellery, where is your money? Where are the keys to your safe?" she said. She remained calm and told her son: "let us pray'. The next moment he started praying loudly, 'Lord, please help us.'

The smaller man then beat her again and ordered them to shut up - and then took her clothes off and pulled off his pants, saying he wanted to rape her. He also said he would “murder her husband when he came home”. The bigger man however stopped the smaller man from raping her. Her husband then also phoned her on her cellphone - and the gunmen demanded to know what he wanted to know from her. She explained that he 'was probably close to getting home.' The men then grabbed her cellphone and ran outside with it - waiting to ambush and shoot dead her husband, she said.

She and her son, nicknamed 'Seuna', then got themselves freed from their bonds, and the two rushed to lock all the doors of their home, she then grabbed her notebook and the mother and son hid inside a clothes-closet. “I could just think about Facebook and hoped that somebody would read my messages and believe that I was writing the truth,' she said. It worked. Within minutes, her husband was phoned, friends arrived, the police roared up and private security guards also responded – all arriving at her front door in short order. The riflemen fled.

Husband saved by friends – police and security guards showed up within minutes

Her husband was phoned by a friend in Strand – in the Western Cape - warning him about his wife’s message and that armed robbers were waiting to shoot him dead at his smallholding. Within minutes of this warning on her Facebook page, friends, police and security-officials all roared up to the front door at the smallholding to help out. The police were unable to catch the two gunmen, who ran off in a hurry. It's not known from the Beeld article what happened to Mrs Langeveld's cellphone. "It's incredible how the internet community saved the lives of my family, and we want to thank everyone who helped us,' she said. SAPS capt Agnes Huma said the 'robbers got away and are still at large. The police investigates a case of armed robbery.' http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/FB-status-red-hul-van-rowers-20120304

Afrikaans gospel singer Bobby van Jaarsveld survives hijacking in Roodepoort – he wrote on Face book March 4 2012 - Writes the artist: Thank you Lord for Your protection. They tried to hijack me last night - I was returning from giving my concert in Roodepoort and was attacked at the Gordon exit. Please be aware and careful on our roads.

Beeld daily ‘s journalist Gerhard Pretorius interviewed Van Jaarsveld -- pictured above left on a poster for a benefit-concert held to raise funds for the treatment of burn-victim Pippie Kruger – about his ordeal on Saturday-night on the N1 highway. The singer’s Range-Rover was rammed from behind by five black men in a silver BMW just as he was driving on the Gordon-entrance to the N1 highway after completing his performance at the Florida Afrikaans High School. “I was eager to get home to my wife and child,’ he said. He initially wanted to climb out to check out the damage, but then the five men climbed from the BMW and he realised he was being hijacked. “I put foot to the floorboard, drove around the men and drove up at high speed, followed by the BMW. But I managed to get away. It’s not the first time he’s been attacked, either – but he still ‘tries not to get negative about the crime-situation in our country. Somebody twittered me to rather go to Australia, where it’s safer. That’s ridiculous: I love my country too much and will not leave it. I just laugh away this hijacking attempt because one does have a choice in the way you handle these things.” He notified the police. “

Afrikaans artists - and their audiences - are often targetted after concerts.

For instance, 39-year-old Afrikaner dad Andries Pieters was kicked into a coma by four Pakistani men on June 6, 2009 after a Steve Hofmeyr concert in Brakpan. The young dad of five-year-old son Keanu (below), died from his injuries shortly thereafter in hospital.

Afrikaners artists’ are keenly aware of these dangers – yet they continue holding their concerts.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '